Shawn Inmon

Forty years after his brother’s death, Thomas Weaver can’t escape his guilt. Still living with his mother and paying the bills by working as a used car salesman, his best friend is a bottle. He’s tired—of the guilt, of the lies, of life. So he decides to end it. Darkness falls over him in his room in 2016, and he’s glad it’s over.

Until he wakes up in 1976, his brother still asleep in the next bed, and all his memories from his last life still intact.

What a great little book! I show more don’t know what I was expecting, but whatever it was, Tommy Weaver’s story blew it out of the water. Simply written and easy to read, Second Life is anything but boring. I had a hard time putting it down. The entire narrative comes from Tommy’s point of view, so we see what he’s thinking and feeling up close as he goes back to high school, forgets where his homeroom is, and can’t remember other little details from the last time he was in school.

I found myself wondering what I would have done in his place, cringing at a couple of his blunders, and biting my nails over the tight spots in which he finds himself. But with a forty-six-year-old driving that teenage body, Thomas is a little wiser, and a lot less concerned with popularity than he’d been before. It was easy to cheer him on and be proud of the choices he makes this time around. There’s no doubt that the character grows and evolves over the course of this book. The Thomas Weaver who appears on page one is not even in the same category as the Thomas Weaver on the last page.

Shawn Inmon has written a number of books in the Middle Falls Time Travel Series. While there were a couple of characters whose story threads were not concluded, Inmon didn’t leave me hanging at the end of this story. My husband has read most of these books and says each one stands alone. He does suggest reading them in publication order, since characters introduced in each book do appear in future books. I absolutely intend to read the rest of these books. I was enthralled with Inmon’s storytelling, and want more.

The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver is a short, easy, thoroughly enjoyable read. Definitely recommended. show less

The best kind of love story

The best kind of love story - because it is a true story! Shawn Inmon shares his heart and soul - the good as well as the not-so good, which just makes the story all the more powerful because it is real. I like the way he let's us in on his teenage angst, the uncertainty and blind spots we all struggle with on the way to adulthood. But also how the important things are never left behind. We take them with us through our adult lives, even if they get buried deep. show more And I wish I had Shawn's knowledge and appreciation of popular music! Thanks for sharing your life with us your readers. show less

Second in a series about linked people who relive their lives until they get them right. Hollister was the evil villain of the first book (which I didn’t read) and when he wakes up as a little kid he spends a while killing his abusive dad before he gets bored with that and tries to forge a different path. Meanwhile one of his prior victims is on her own journey. If you enjoy redemption arcs and like “cranky adult in kid body, but no sexualization of that kid or his relations with other show more kids” (but note the past sexual abuse) then it might be something you’d enjoy. show less

must say, this book took me by surprise. i've read a few of this type, but not one who dared killing off characters who don't feel quite like "red-shirts"... i'm very much waiting to see what happens next, and hope the author doesn't disappoint. the world-building is top-notch, and the remaining characters (mostly) have personalities worth investigating...